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    Sold Manx queen for sale (SOLD)

    I have one Manx queen available for sale - can't say she's pure AMM but offspring pretty dark with no obvious yellow banding etc. She's overwintered so nearly a year old, clipped and marked. Surplus to requirements, currently in a mailing cage with attendants so need to find her a home ASAP...
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    Second Year Summary

    Good suits are a bit more expensive but well worth it. One thing I also found when I started was that bees really weren't keen on leather gloves, switched to marigolds and it made a big difference during inspections. Still too scared to inspect without gloves though :)
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    Second Year Summary

    You're right..caught me out there! That'll teach me to be pedantic :)
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    Second Year Summary

    And the Isle of Man :)
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    low swarming tendency line

    I'd consider non-swarmy bees a valuable asset..less time and resources I have to spend on swarm control the better (although there's always going to be some!). I've only kept bees for a few years and only had a couple of colonies at a time but they generally seemed quite keen on swarming. Since...
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    Books

    Haynes Bee Manual is really good. Another one I can think of is Bees at the Bottom of the Garden by Alan Campion. Both really good books, found them really helpful when I started beekeeping.
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    When to stop feeding?

    Have you tried hefting the hives? Can be tricky to know how heavy they should be as a beginner (which is what I found!) but if they feel pretty heavy then I'd guess they should be okay. I used the 4 pint rapid feeders, once done covered the feed holes with a thin bit of ply and put on an eke...
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    Two sisters, such different colours!?

    Thanks for all the replies - I was thinking hypothetically regarding the drones in the hive all being the sons of the resident queen (I understand drones drift from hive to hive etc). Have to admit I think genetics in general is way above my level, far too complex for me! As mentioned, depending...
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    Two sisters, such different colours!?

    Just to go slightly OT - I understand that the workers can have colour variation due to the fact that they have different fathers. But since drones have no father (all genes from mother?) shouldn't all the drones be exactly the same colour as the queen? (this is assuming they are all her sons...
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    Gardens of Suburbia : Forage month by month

    Definately Phacelia - grew a patch on the allotment last year, bees loved it (although seemed more popular with bumbles than honeybees). Think it's used as green manure.
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    Nuc - to inspect or not?

    Best to leave it alone - know it can be frustrating as a beginner when you want to see what's going on. But if the queen returns from a mating flight to find the hive open and a beekeeper there she might be disorientated and get lost, fly into the wrong hive etc. If you really want to look, best...
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    LASI Blog - high acceptance in the direct introduction of queens with smoke but without cages

    Just out of curiosity - has anyone tried direct introduction using smoke in the past, and if so how successful was it? It's not a method I've seen in any books, although I have read the paper before. Have tried introducing queens a few times, with mixed results (butler cage to nuc, nuc to hive...
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    LASI Blog - high acceptance in the direct introduction of queens with smoke but without cages

    Wondering about the emergency queen cells that will be produced in the queenless period - would they need to be removed before introducing the queen with smoke? Didn't see any mention of it anywhere..
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    Using the Chinese grafting tool

    I gently push the flexible bit of the grafting tool straight down the side of the cell wall until you feel resistance at the bottom, give it a little more pressure (the tongue should flex under the larva) and then pull straight back up again, hopefully you end up with a larvae on the end. I try...
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    Grafted cells - burr/drawn comb

    Thanks for the advice everyone. Cells due for distribution to nucs on Tuesday so will try my best to remove them and carefully cut away any big bits of comb. Have heard that there's some OSR being grown nearby so that might explain where all the nectar is coming from (we don't have much of it...
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    Grafted cells - burr/drawn comb

    Wondering if anyone might have had this before - grafted some larvae into JZBZ cups and placed into a queenless cell raising hive a week ago. Larvae were checked a few days later, 8 out of 10 seemed to had been accepted. Today had a quick look and found that the bees had drawn comb down from two...
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    Drone queen - shook hive - insert queen cell ?

    Have a similar situation myself - new queen started laying recently, on last inspection only a few cells had been capped but looked quite uneven, bit worried she's a drone layer. Spotted her, nice big queen, lots of eggs and larvae. Going to take another look next week and hope there's some nice...
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    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Day off work today, good weather so day of beekeeping. Checked on one hive with newly laying queen..found her, clipped and marked (through COT, managed to snip through one of the threads in the process). Only a few cells capped but looks a bit lumpy and uneven, worried might be a drone...
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    Little Beauty !

    Managed to clip two of mine recently - first go with a plunger cage, find them tricky to use (getting the queen in!) but managed it in the end. Second one I used a crown of thorns and managed to clip through the mesh, was also fiddly but not as bad as the tube. Still not brave enough to take off...
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    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Cool, overcast and blowing a gale..not much going on here :(
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